Date: Sat, 21 Nov 1998 06:58:28 -0700 (MST) From: Russet McMillan Subject: 3.5m Night Log 981120 FRIDAY NOVEMBER 20, 1998 APACHE POINT OBSERVATORY OBSERVING LOG ACTUAL ASTRONOMER OBSERVER(S) INSTRUMENT DATE START FINISH Turner Gloria SPIcam 11/20 - - Zucker Zucker SPIcam 11/20-21 19:55 02:10 Tomaney Tomaney SPIcam 11/21 02:10 05:13 INST SCHEDULED OBS WEATH EQUIP DAY NOTUSED I/RS/DN START FINISH D B D B D B USE D B PU01/S 18:25 19:15 0 - 0.8 - 0 - 0 0 - UW07/R 19:15 02:10 6.2 - 0.7 - 0 - 0 0 - UW06/R 02:10 05:13 3.0 - 0 - 0 - 0 0 - (note: times listed include instrument change time) ACTIVITY LOG (* means a trouble report has been issued or appended to) 1st half observing specialist: Karen Gloria There was heavy cloud cover over southeastern New Mexico this afternoon, but with a well defined edge. So, when the sky finally cleared it happened rapidly. PU01 was clouded out. We opened at 19:55 MST. There were several PMSS hiccups during the first fifteen minutes of Dan Zucker's observations. Only a few more after that. The seeing was great for the first two hours, 1.0 - 1.1 arcsec. The seeing degraded to 1.5 arcsec when the wind shifted to the north. 2nd half observing specialist: Russet McMillan Second half was uneventful, with clear skies but poor seeing (>1.5 arcsec). UW02 was scheduled for second half, but Alan Diercks gave his time to Austin Tomaney, and Tomaney in turn arranged with Dan Zucker to make the switch at 02:00 instead of 00:10. These changes are reflected in the time log above. The only strange happenings were when the altitude axis failed to track after a slew around 00:10. This was easily fixed with an axis init command, but I don't know what could have caused it in the first place. Also, around 01:00 we saw some strange background variations in several consecutive images that looked like a possible light leak. There were no clouds and no lights in the dome. It could have been scattered light from Alamogordo (the telescope was pointed NW), but the effect was much stronger than in other fields at a similar azimuth. OBSERVER COMMENTS D. Zucker (UW07): The night started well. The clouds moved away from APO at the beginning of my run, and the seeing was under 1 arcsec. Unfortunately, the PMSS caused some oscillations that were visible in some images. The oscillations went away, and everything was great until the wind changed direction and the seeing worsened. Thanks to Austin Tomaney, who gave me extra time from the second half to get more data, and to Karen and Russet for keeping things running pretty smoothly. FOCUS LOG NOVEMBER 20 1998 Wind Time Inst Focus Az El #Temp Dir MPH filt FWHM " 20:15 SPIcam -200(6060) 235 43 2.8/3.7 310 9 V 0.99 20:45 guider 48114(5947) 354 63 2.5/3.2 302 8 R 1.2 21:00 SPIcam -150(5982) 349 63 2.3/3.0 322 13 V 0.97 00:25 SPIcam -130(6091) 248 31 0.8/1.4 350 6 V 1.7 00:45 SPIcam -150(6022) 323 40 1.6/1.3 28 9 V 1.5 02:50 SPIcam -190(5988) 244 34 0.7/0.7 0 13 r' 1.8 #First temp is air, second temp is telescope. WEATHER NOVEMBER 20 1998 Wind Time Temp F Dewp F MPH Direction Dust Sky Precip. 16:01 39 25 9 243 (WSW) overcast none 17:01 39 26 12 246 (WSW) overcast none 18:01 38 25 7 265 (W) overcast none 19:01 38 26 11 270 (W) overcast none 20:01 37 24 10 301 (WNW) ptly cldy none 21:01 36 24 12 329 (NNW) clear none 22:01 36 27 9 13 (NNE) clear none 23:01 36 23 5 319 (NW) clear none 00:01 35 20 4 46 (NE) clear none 01:01 35 16 13 358 (N) clear none 02:01 34 16 11 349 (NNW) clear none 03:01 33 16 10 4 (N) clear none 04:01 33 19 14 19 (NNE) clear none 05:01 34 -10 12 8 (N) clear none 06:01 35 -11 5 346 (NNW) clear none note: the wind was coming from the azimuth listed. The convention used is north=0 degrees, east=90 degrees. The dust count is particles > 1 micron per 0.1 cu. ft. TELESCOPE STATUS Primary, secondary, and tertiary mirrors in place and collimated. Primary support system operational. Mirror ventilation system in place. Telescope drives operational. Current Remark version: 2.42a. Current guide software version: GIm Ctrlv3.0b15. - Karen Gloria, Russet McMillan